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4th Quarterly Newsletter 2010

President´s Report

The recovery of the global robotics industry - a never ending story?

During more than 30 years in the robotics business, I never saw such a strong and ongoing recovery of robot demand. In the first three quarters of 2010 the robot sales doubled compared to the same period in 2009, the result of the global financial and economical crisis. Already in 2010, we will be back on the peak levels of 2007 and 2008.

IFR Statistical Department

Robotics industry is recovering worldwide

"This emerging demand for industrial robots after the slump in 2009 exceeds all our expectations. Already in 2010, more than 100,000 industrial robots will be sold worldwide," commented Åke Lindqvist, IFR President, ABB, the results of the IFR Quarterly Statistics on Industrial Robots.

ISR 2011 Robotics Sessions at Automate

Conference takes place in Chicago

The 42nd International Symposium on Robotics (ISR), the world's most prestigious annual robotics conference, takes place during the Automate 2011 Show and Conference in Chicago, Illinois, March 21-24, 2011.

IERA Award 2011 - Applications deadline: 18.02.2011

IEEE/IFR Invention & Entrepreneurship Award

Call for Applications released for IEEE/IFR Invention & Entrepreneurship Award (IERA Award) honoring outstanding achievements in commercializing innovative Robot and Automation Technology. Applications will be accepted until 18 February 2011.

Fanuc Robotics Europe - IFR Partner

Compact energy saver robot provides high speed spot welder option

Continuing its drive for more compact and faster solutions for automated processes, FANUC Robotics has launched a new 'lower energy consumption' 100Kg robot. The FANUC Robotics R-1000iA/100F is designed for high speed handling and in particular for spot welding.

Wittmann, Austria - IFR-Partner

Wittmann R8.2: The New Standard in Robot Control

Since its market introduction 2009 the WITTMANN robot R8 control has excelled by way of its trend-setting design, ease of use and intuitiveness. Just in time for K 2010 the performance spectrum has been significantly increased, whereby WITTMANN offers and makes available many of these performance enhancing functions at no extra cost.

Wittmann, Austria - IFR-Partner

The new Wittmann Servo Robots

The participation of Wittmann at the K 2010 occured under the headline "A box full of innovations". This slogan at this year's K Show displayed particularly for the presentation of robots from WITTMANN, since a parade of new models was waiting for introduction.

KUKA, Germany - IFR-Partner

New Generation - QUANTEC K

At the K trade fair, KUKA Roboter GmbH presented a new generation of shelf-mounted robots - QUANTEC K. With its extensive range of models, comprising 11 basic robot types, the QUANTEC K series ensures that there is a perfectly suited robot for every customer-specific application. For the first time, a single robot family covers the entire high payload range from 90 to 270 kg, with reaches from 2,900 to 3,900 mm.

Fanuc Robotics Europe - IFR Partner

Compact High Speed Palletising Robot M410iB/140H

FANUC Robotics' latest addition to the M-410i range of palletising robots claims to be the fastest robot in its class performing cycles in less than 2 seconds. The slimmer arm and wrist design make the 140Kg payload M-410iB/140H the most compact robot in the range.

ABB, Sweden - IFR-Partner

ABB expands its industrial robot range with three new models

The new range of fourth-generation multipurpose robots is designed to increase productivity in machine tending, material handling, arc welding and other process applications. The IRB 2600 robots are extremely fast and compact, and can improve production cycle times by up to 25%.

Fanuc Robotics Europe - IFR Partner

Nine axes in one robot controller

Thermoforming/Vacuum Forming has helped grow the business for the Vitelo Group, based in Meulebeke - Belgium. To fulfil a contract for the John Deere Corporation, the company have installed a fully automated robot cell. The robot cell performs the Plasma Treatment and Bonding of the two part product.

KUKA Roboter, UK - IFR-Partner

Robots show how to boost Aero Assembly Operations

KUKA is playing a key role in the development of an innovative automated system for assembling complex aircraft structures in collaboration with Europe's leading airplane manufacturer. The automation specialist has devised a flexible robotic solution for performing a variety of drilling and fastening tasks on the upper and lower wing covers of a lateral wing box demonstration unit being built at the Airbus facility in Filton.

Valk Welding, Netherlands - IFR-Partner

Plasmacutting robot for the structural steel industry

The Voortman revolutionary V808M fully automatic coping system not only copes profiles using plasma, but is now also capable of applying marking layout lines and information to all four sides of a profile. Voortman uses a plasmacutting robot from Valk Welding in their beam coping system V808M.

KUKA Roboter, Germany - IFR-Partner

No fear of automation

A small family business exploits the flexibility of a KUKA robot for pallet production To react quickly and flexibly to the pallet production requirements of their customers, they now rely on the help of a KUKA robot. A KR 210 L180 K collects the finished pallets from the end of the pallet nailing machine and stacks them up.

Panasonic, Germany - IFR Partner

Panasonic opened a new big Technical Centre in Neuss near Düsseldorf

Panasonic Robot and Welding Systems Europe has opened ceremonially its new Technical Centre at the European headquarters in Neuss near Düsseldorf corporately with 30 system partners from all over Europe.

Danish Technological Institute, Denmark - IFR-R&D Institute

Great interest in the new DTI Centre for Robot Technology

Danish Technological Institute's (DTI) Centre for Robot Technology needed all of its 1,100 new square metres of laboratories and offices, as around 500 guests from Denmark and abroad on the 9th of November attended the opening of the new centre, which is three times the size of the previous centre.

New fixtures for car body assembly operations in the vehicle industry

Research Project SMARTFLEX

The paper summarizes part of the results of the project SMARTFLEX (co-funded by the Italian Ministry of Research and Education). The project involves Comau Robotics and FIAT with the goal to create conditions for breakthrough innovation in the car body assembly process in terms of autonomy and adaptivity to achieve higher flexibility and re-configurability. The overall objective is an assembly line processing numerous car bodies also with remarkably different geometry.

IPA, Germany - IFR-R&D Institute

Fraunhofer IPA and Festo - winners of the German Future Prize 2010: Bionic Handling Assistant

On December 1, 2010, Dr. Peter Post and Markus Fischer from Festo, as well as Andrzej Grzesiak from Fraunhofer IPA were awarded with the German Future Prize (Deutscher Zukunftspreis) 2010 for their joint project entitled "The elephant's trunk as a model - a high-tech helper in industrial and household applications".

RIA, USA - IFR-Industry Association

North American Robot Orders Up 34% in First Nine Month of 2010

North American based robotics companies reported strong gains in the first nine months of 2010. A total of 9,628 robots valued at $618.4 million were ordered through September by North American manufacturing companies. This represents a gain of 34% in units and 45% in dollars over the same period in 2009.